Community prepares to mark 150th anniversary of Quantrill’s raid

From an explosion of tweets to a solemn reading of the names of those violently slain, area residents will spend the next several days remembering the watershed event in Lawrence's history.

William Quantrill and a band of Missouri ruffians killed more than 180 men and boys and left much of Lawrence burned to the ground in a massacre that took place 150 years ago this Wednesday.

"I hope everybody comes away from these next few days with a real pride for the Lawrence community," said Fred Conboy, leader of the organization that oversees the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area. "The greatest significance of Quantrill's raid is the spirit of resiliency that came after it. Folks wasted no time in rebuilding."

Figuring out how to mark the event — which put Lawrence on the front pages of newspapers across the country — has been difficult, however. Jonathan Earle, a Kansas University history professor involved in some of the planning, said commemorating the event has been a fine line to walk.

"A lot of time when you remember old events, there is a celebratory aspect to it," said Earle. "But this is a terrible, terrible thing that happened here. The hard part is that you want to remember the people who needlessly died, but you also want to convey that it is from this event that our town got its character, its grit."

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been corrected to list the correct dates for the Judge Louis Carpenter event and the Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence: Stories of Loss, Destruction and Survival event.

Perhaps surprisingly, Twitter may be able to help. On the actual anniversary of the raid, Wednesday, several dozen area residents will rise before dawn to "re-enact" the event via posting on Twitter. Individuals will take on the roles of both Lawrence residents and raiders, and tweet their actions as if they are happening in real time.

"We're hoping that when you see the event through their eyes, it makes it a lot more personal, and brings a little more humanity to it," said Christine Metz Howard, communications manager for the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, and an organizer for the event.

Organizers also are hoping the unique Twitter aspect creates a lot of attention for the community. People can follow the reenactment at the hashtag #QR1863.

"As far as we know, nobody has done anything quite like this," Howard said of the project. "The pipe dream is for this to trend worldwide on Twitter, but even if it just trends regionally, that would be great.

"Even if nobody follows us on the day of the event, though, I think it has already been a great project. People who are playing the characters are getting so much more interested in it. They're reading old letters and diaries and newspaper articles to prepare for this."

There will be more traditional events to mark the occasion as well. Howard said the "keystone" event of the commemoration will be be a special Lawrence City Band concert and reading of the names of the victims from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday at South Park in Downtown Lawrence.

The Lawrence City Band played a concert the night before Quantrill raided the city, and Sunday's concert will feature music from that time period. Earle, who has recently written a book about the Bleeding Kansas period before the Civil War, will give a speech about the significance of the raid and Lawence's role in the fight to abolish slavery. The evening will be capped by a re-enactor portraying abolitionist and newspaper publisher John Speer, who will read the names of the victims of the raid.

"There will be parts of the event that are fun," Earle said. "But there will be parts that are very moving and very poignant."

City leaders are hopeful the 150th anniversary causes people from outside the city to take notice of the area's history. CVB officials said they have been fielding media inquiries from as far away as Chicago. Quantrill's Raid and Lawrence's role in the days leading up to the Civil War are featured in the August editions of Wild West and True West magazines, Howard said. The television program Diggers, which airs on the National Geographic channel, earlier this week aired an episode in which the show's hosts uncovered some ammunition and other artifacts at the Black Jack Battlefield site near Baldwin City.

Earle said he thinks it is time for eastern Kansas and western Missouri's role in the Civil War to be better understood at the national level.

"A lot of the activities, the guerilla warfare that would happen in the Civil War, first happened here," said Earle. "I'm not sure our friends on the coasts understand that. We were a pacesetter."

But the attention on the events of 1863 also are good reminder for area residents who think they already know the story, Howard said.

"We should all celebrate that Lawrence did come back stronger and better than ever," Howard said. "A lot of what Lawrence was fighting for and stood for still lingers here today. We're very proud of our community's free-thinking spirit, and that this is still a place where all people can come and live. A lot of the philosophy of 1863 is still in Lawrence today."

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Comments

"William Quantrill and a band of Missouri ruffians killed more than 180 men and boys and left much of Lawrence burned to the ground in a massacre that took place 150 years ago this Wednesday."

I am puzzled as to how this violent event is something to celebrate? Shouldn't the focus be only the positive rebuilding effort? The beautiful structures that followed which were designed to still be standing 150 years later? That are becoming an endangered species?

Al Capone and many gangs of bank robbers from yesteryear have tributes in local communities
known as museums. Then again I guess some of this mentality is still around dressed in white collars. White collar criminals are worshipped to some degree and voted back into office.

Lawrence is a beautiful town which I believe should be the ultimate focus. Instead of reenactment of the violence why not reenactment of the wonderful building construction that ultimately made Lawrence what it is today? How exactly was this accomplished? Why destroy it? What types of tools were available for designing the homes and buildings and where are the old style cranes? Who were the famous brick layers? How were the bricks made? Famous stone masons?

The styles of clothing and how were they made? Sewing machines or what?

What about agriculture and historical farm equipment? How was landscaping accomplished?

Did the underground railroad play a part in Lawrence history?

Focus on the positive outcome inspite of the negative violence. A ton of hard workers are going unnoticed while the reckless get celebrated.

Let's talk about the right to vote which is now becoming endangered to a degree. What about the right to vote? Who had the right to vote back then and how has it changed? Were there voting booths and such?

It is interesting that the city is taking the time to mark this event. But I wonder if people realize the attack was provoked. According the this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Massacre. Quantrill himself said his motivation for the attack was, "To plunder, and destroy the town in retaliation for Osceola."[3] That was a reference to the Union's attack on Osceola, Missouri in September 1861, led by Senator James H. Lane. Osceola was plundered and nine men were given a drumhead court-martial trial and executed.[4][5] Several other Missouri towns and large swaths of the Missouri countryside had been similarly plundered and burned by Unionist forces from Kansas. Castel (1999) concludes that revenge was the primary motive, followed by a desire to plunder.[6] The retaliatory nature of the attack on Lawrence was confirmed by the survivors. "The universal testimony of all the ladies and others who talked with the butchers of the 21st ult. Is that these demons claimed there were here to revenge the wrongs done their families by our men under Lane, Jennison, Anthony and Co." Nobody seems to remember or acknowledge this fact. Do you think Missouri towns celebrated the fact that they were raided first. Nor do people realize that Jayhawkers and Redlegs, which were free-state militia and vigilante groups known for attacking and destroying farms and plantations in Missouri's pro-slavery western counties.

Yes, the attack was provoked, but there are many other events leading to the burning of Lawrence and the "real" start of the Civil War. These small attacks were done by both sides, then Quantril's raid happened.

I'm so amazed that people don't know our history. Don't read Wiki, get a real book on Bleeding KS. There was bad on both sides, but the worst came from raiders from MO. Please also look into the Battle of Black Jack and ALL the history. Remember, these *sshats were doing all this to make KS a SLAVE state. Kansan's were raiding into MO because THEY were coming over here to insure slavery was allowed and were meddling in KS politics.

And the worse came from the Missourians, because they were defending slavery. They had no moral standing. And the Union won, slavery was eliminated, Missouri and other proslavery people just need to deal with it.

While it is good we celebrate the survivors of this tragedy to rebuilt their lives and Lawrence, it seems the headlines lend to close to celebrating Quantrill and his raid of killing Lawrencians. Still there is no mention of how that evil man died. So fair thee well Lawrencians for Quentrill may have gotten away from Lawrence he didn't fair well the rest of his miserble life. He died at 27 - two years after the killed, burned and sacked Lawrence. And he suffered before his death of being shot in the spine and paralized while he laid in a bed for a month and suffered then died, but to add some poetic justice to his demise Quantrill bones are actually buried in 3 places.

"Quantrill's friend took the skull to Mrs Quantrill who identified it based upon a chipped tooth. Under cover of darkness, the entire box was stolen. Upon return to Dover, the bones were interred in the family plot in the Dover 4th St Cemetery minus the skull and various bones the unscrupulous friend had removed and kept. Some bones ended up at the Kansas State Historical Society and the skull to the Dover museum until buried in a separate container in the family plot. The stolen parts were repatriated by the Missouri Division of the Sons of Confederate Veteran's and are buried among his comrades at the Old Confederate Veteran's Home Cemetery, Higginsville, Mo. "

I would rather focus on the the strength and courage of the survivors of that day as we should all remember they are the heros. Not an angry, spoiled, manchild having a tantrum and hurting innocent people. He deserved how he died.